Boruto: Naruto the Movie

This was Hiroyuki Yamashita’s first feature. He joined in December 2014 and came close to turning the job down because of the schedule forced on him by the release date. Masashi Kishimoto took on the screenplay this time, not only the character designs. He had first imagined the story as a manga, decided there was not enough time, moved straight to a script, and read a book on screenwriting to prepare. He also asked that the fights lean on taijutsu, the hand to hand style, rather than on ninja techniques, setting it apart from the earlier Naruto pictures. The idea that Boruto’s Rasengan turns invisible once raised came from the writer Ukyo Kodachi. Kishimoto decided a flawless Naruto would make dull viewing, and built him as an incompetent father. It became the highest earning entry in the Naruto series. Its story was later retold in the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations show across episodes 53 to 66, as that show’s seventh arc, so it sits 52 episodes in rather than at the opening. A good fit if you are curious about fights shifted from technique display toward close quarters work, and want father and son to finish one together. Not for anyone starting without Naruto’s own story; the film treats who the Seventh Hokage is as known.